Litigation/Dispute Resolution

A litigation funding platform has launched an “automated secondary market” to allow high-net-worth individuals to trade investments in cases that already have funding.

The Ministry of Justice has confirmed that it will implement Sir Rupert Jackson’s blueprint for fixed recoverable costs across the fast-track and in most money cases worth up to £100,000.

The High Court has granted summary judgment in favour of a law firm and its senior partner and dismissed a £2.7m negligence claim.

Delays in cases going through the civil courts reduced slightly in the second quarter of 2021, but it still takes 49 weeks to get a small claim from issue to trial and 71 weeks for larger claims.

There is “strong justification” for increasing 129 court fees by inflation, backdated to 2016, the Ministry of Justice has said.

The High Court has warned about the potential unfairness to defendants facing a claimant operating ‘risk-free’ under a damages-based agreement and backed by after-the-event insurance.

A High Court ruling on a low-value data breach claim may stop claimants recovering after-the-event insurance premiums in cases involving cyber-attacks, reducing their viability.

The new guideline hourly rates will not formally come into force until 1 October but the High Court yesterday took them into account when dealing with a summary assessment.

A judge has rejected claims by the wife of a convicted Kazakh businessman that she was overcharged by a London law firm for her asylum application.

The international body for third-party funders has told UNCITRAL that restricting the funding of treaty-based investor-state arbitrations would weaken the rule of law.

The Competition Appeal Tribunal yesterday granted the first ever collective proceedings order, allowing the £14bn Mastercard opt-out class action to go forward at last.

The Master of the Rolls, Sir Geoffrey Vos, has approved the new guideline hourly rates while ordering a further review that will take into account changing working practices.

A judge who had “no information at all” as to how the defence of a dormant law firm was being funded was right not to ignore the issue, appeal judges have ruled.

Expert witnesses prefer to travel to prepare themselves for a trial in person with their legal teams even when the trial itself is to be conducted remotely, a report has found.

A law firm and a litigation funder were entitled to end their retainers with a couple suing their former solicitors and should have their costs of £75,000, the High Court has ruled.